PSY 230 OL Lecture Study Guides for Module 1

PSY 230 OL Lecture Study Guides for Module 1

M1 L1 Respond to the following study guide items from lecture
1. What is the area of study involved in Abnormal psychology?
a. Concerned with understanding the nature of causes and treatment of mental disorder
b. No universal agreement
c. People typically compare others behavior to their own

2. List 7 characteristic often associated with behavior that is considered abnormal.
a. Suffering: someone experiences physical or emotional pain and discomfort as a result of the disordered behavior
b. Maladaptive: the behavior significantly interferes with the ability of the person or others to function well in life
c. Deviancy: the behavior of the person is statistically rare AND maladaptive. Rarity on its own does not necessarily qualify as abnormal
d. Violation of Societal standards: the behavior may be unacceptable in the contextual society in which it occurs. Rule violations are seen as maladaptive..somewhat. Increasing cultural diversity makes this criteria dicey.
e. Social discomfort: behavior that makes others uncomfortable, anxious and ill-at-ease is often labeled as abnormal
f. Irrational and Unpredictable: behavior that seems to come out of the blue and could not be predicted is seen as abnormal
g. Dangerousness: is a behavioral quality that must be considered in context and is extremely hard to predict.

3. Describe and explain the critical aspects of the term disorder as presented in the
DSM 5.0.
Can we objectively define abnormality?
Disorder: behavior or psychological syndrome that is present in an individual and that reflects some kind of underlying psychobiological dysfunction
This disorder results in significant distress, disability or impairment in key areas of functioning
And this disorder is not predictable response to common stressors or loss and not resulting from social deviance or conflicts with societal standards.

4. How does the DSM 5.0 approach the issue of separating abnormal from normal behavior?
a. It uses the syndrome model of disorders
b. Requires that there be harm or dysfunction in a behavior that makes that behavior abnormal
c. DSM emphasizes the need to separate DISORDER from expected response that is still problematic (someone is angry after being attacked or robbed)
i. That expected behavior comes from different social standards
5. Define syndrome and the syndrome model.
a. Syndrome – a collection of symptoms which co-occur in a cluster and thus define the disorder
b. The syndrome model requires that we identify those behaviors, which can be considered to be co-occurring symptoms. The exhibition of these behaviors would then justify labeling a person as abnormal

6. Explain what we mean by necessary conditions.
a. Necessary condition is one that must be present in a particular disorder. It is always found in people who have a specific diagnosis.
i. to adequately define a syndrome we must identify those necessary conditions

7. Describe and explain the two critical aspects of abnormal behavior based upon Jerome Wakefield's suggestions.
a. The necessary behaviors for a psychological disorder are considered disordered because they are either harmful or dysfunction or both.
b. Harm means that someone, the client or others around, are suffering physically and or psychologically due to the behavior.
i. Harmfulness is judged from the perspective of the client, society or the professional ii. Social judgment and license therapist have final say
c. Dysfunction means that the behavioral symptoms significantly interferes with the client’s ability to completely and effectively live their life within society
i. Psychological process fails to serve the function for which it evolved. ii. This is a scientific judgment

8. How has the adoption of the bio-psycho-social model affected the organization of disorders in the DSM 5.0 vs. the previous DSM versions?
a. How we function biologically, psychologically and socially all interact in a reciprocal fashion
b. Bio-psycho-social model: As we consider the causes of each disorder, we will be aware of the fact that biological systems, psychological processes and real world context all interact to create and sustain disorder

9. What are the 3 major ethical concerns involved in diagnosing others with mental disorders?
a. Stereotyping and losing specific details about that individual when we label them into a category
b. Labels often carry stigma – that can have lasting negative social implications
c. Self-image can be significantly changed when someone learns of their label and it can make existing problems worse

10. What are the 3advantages of labeling and classifying abnormal behavior?
a. Provides a language for communicating disorders
b. Organizes research activities to promote understanding disorders
c. Organizes information that makes third parties understand- health insurance companies

11. How does cultural diversity affect our attempts to develop a labeling system for disorders? SLIDE 24, 25 LECTURE 1

M1 L2 Respond to the following study guide items from lecture
1. What is our current understanding of how prehistoric humans viewed mental illness? What evidence exists to support this understanding?
We don’t have a written record so we have to rely on archeological findings
The first earliest written history clearly indicates that mental illness was seen as caused by evil spirits
There actually was a surgical procedure called trephining; used to cut a triangular hole in the skull to allow them to escape
Worked for some patients; some reasons for this:
Behavior was caused by head injury; with resulting intracranial pressure; pressure was released by procedure; person got better
The process of having the trephining done to a person may have discouraged that person to act in the way that they were

2. How was mental illness viewed by ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, Chinese and early Greeks and Hebrews?
The writings indicate that abnormal behavior was the result of possession by good or evil spirits
Religious or mystical interpretation

3. How did the later Greeks such Hippocrates and Galen view mental illness?
Hippocrates was an early Greek physician who’s medical concepts included mental disorders (460 BC)
Mental disorders were naturally occurring
Categorized disorders as mania, melancholia, or phrenitis
Mania = schizophrenia; wild unmanaged behavior
Melancholia = depression;
Phrenitis = brain body fever, delirium: loss of ability to know what is real and not real, looked like some cases of schizophrenia
Associated dreams and personality; a person’s external behavior
Galen was a prominent greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher
Settled in Rome but was a greek
Suggested that mental illness arises from a disruption of nerve functions
130-200 AD
A lot like what we are saying today; psychological disorder is from some underlying biological process like a neural type process

4. How were mental illnesses viewed during the Dark ages and the Later Middle ages? What treatments were used? Define and give examples of Mass Madness.
Thought and intellectual thinking- tremendous regression in this which resulted in mental illness being seen as caused by supernatural forces
Possession was seen as some allegiance; willful or unwilling; with the devil and his demons
Primary treatment was exorcism; the idea was to create so much physical pain in the body that the demon would leave; treatment was usually fatal
Church had a big impact on these times (400- 900 A.D.) ; Dark ages

5. How did the Renaissance alter the view of mental illness? Define "animalism and explain the impact this belief had on treatment approaches for the mentally ill.
Period of enlightenment; rebirth of intellectual thought
Research and debate about mental illness became prominent
Mental illness was seen as an illness
Mental illness was a result of animalism which resulted in cruel, inhumane treatment
What is the essential nature of human nature? (Da Vinci)
(Animalism) Those with mental illness have lost their basic human nature and can be treated like caged animals
Those with mental illness could not feel pain, hunger, or loneliness
We start to see the rise of places where the mentally ill could be warehoused.
First Asylums were developed
Place to put ill persons who were no longer humanized
These places reflected the term animalism
Living conditions were horrible and treatment was inhumane
Bethlam Royal Hospital aka Bedlam (1330) in great Britain 6. How did the spirit of reform in the 18th and 19th Centuries alter the view of mental illness?
Upsurge in reform around in the world due to the impact of the French and American revolution; promoted human dignity and freedom; was extended to the mentally ill
Note the contributions of the following pioneers:
Philippe Pinel and William Tuke:
Pinel was put in charge of one of the largest mental institutions in Paris; he unchained the patients; he spruced up the environment and he clothed the mentally ill he reported that these humans began to act more like humans when they were treated with dignity and respect= moral management movement moral management is not treatment- these individuals were still seen as needing to be managed
William Tuke created the York retreat in 1792- he set up an institution for the mentally ill that emphasized sanitary living conditions
Benjamin Rush:
Father of American Psychiatry
Influential teacher at Yale medical school
Emphasized training physicians to treat mental patients as medical disorders
Pressed for the use of moral management
You need rest and good food and be taken away from current environment; a lot like the view of Hippocrates
Dorothea Dix :
A grass roots reformer
Worked from town to town and had town meetings
Responsible for the establishment of no less than 30 mental institutions
Tried to get a decline in the negative stereotyping of the mentally ill
Those individuals are the most unfortunate of our society
Changed attitudes of people towards the mentally ill
Clifford Beers
Was an individual who had a long history of inpatient and outpatient treatment for a mental illness—probably recurring depression
Wrote A Mind That Fount itself- autobiography and account of his own mental collapse and maltreatment and abuse by staff in institutions
Influence was to get people to look at themselves who were providing treatment and question themselves

7. Who was Franz Anton Mesmer and what impact, both negative and positive, did he have on the developing understanding of mental illness in the 18thcentury?
Physician who was from Austria
Developed a theory that both physical and mental illnesses were caused by a mis-alignment of animal magnetism
A physical magnetic fluid flowing through channels in the body that if blocked caused mental and physical illnesses
Magnetism was just becoming known in physics; he picked up on that and related it to the body and mental illnesses
Cocktail party kind of atmosphere and in a theatrical kind of way he would say he is realigning their animal magnetism; people would go along with and report doing much better; do to placebo affect
This drew attention from many people in Paris; including King Louis 16th
King Louis convened a panel to determine whether it was fact or fraud
The commission determined that Mesmer had not discovered a real physical fluid and the human body did not contain previously undiscovered channels and that any effects of his treatment were due to imagination
Reputation ruined by the commissions findings
Mesmer laid the foundation for another train of thought---

8. Who was Dr. Jams Braid and what were his contributions to understanding of mental processes in the 19th century?
Scottish physician
Witnessed his first mesmerist show and got permission to observe the subjects of a traveling mesmerist
Laid the foundation of what he called hypnotism and hypnotist because he wanted to separate it from animal magnetism
He promotes hypnotism for a useful tool of treating mental illnesses
It wasn’t a cure but it helped; he had such a big reputation that people were not going to ignore his ideas
Following his lead – 2 opposing schools of thought emerged in Europe as physicians began to investigate hypnosis

9. Who were Ambrose Liebeault and Hippolyte Bernheim and what movement did they start? What was their position regarding hypnosis?
Liebeault was a private practice physician and he used hypnosis and said that it worked with his own patients—lived in a small town called Nancy in France
This came to the attention of Hippolyte Bernheim—a professor of neurology at the University of Nancy
These two became friends and colleagues and started what is called the Nancy School
The nancy school viewed hypnosis as a natural curative process
It can be used for anyone or any condition; might not cure but it is helpful
Natural process; suggestive therapeutics

10. Who was Jean-Martin Charcot and what school of thought regarding hypnosis did he found? How did his position differ from that of the Nancy school?
Bitterly opposed the Nancy school
Jean Martin Charcot was one of the founders of Neurology
Opened up a clinic that was entirely devoted to the study of the brain
Salpetrier Hospital
First to discover MS and ALS
Saw hypnosis as only occurring in cases of hysteria and a symptom of hysterical state
Hypnosis can only be used as a counter balanced treatment for the hysteria condition; it should never be induced in others as it destabilizes the mind

11. What student studied hypnosis with both competing schools of thought and brought great respectability to the concept of hypnosis?
Sigmund Freud

12. Define mind-body dualism and explain how this concept spurred the development of the non-medical theorizing and treatment of mental illness.
Freud was looking at the mind being the cause of mental illnesses and august kohler invented a unique illumination method of specimens for the microscope—accelerate the scientific investigation of micro-pathogens
Mind and body are then seen as very different very separate
Mental illness was viewed as a disruption of the psyche
Mind was seen as separate and different from the brain and not subject to medical interpretation
During this period of time; numerous non-medical causes were proposed with the introduction of psychotherapy in addition to medical treatments, particularly medication.
Sigmund Freud, Alfred Alder, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers

13. During our current post-modern era, how is the view of mental illness changing?
Rapprochement between psychological theory and medical theory
Bio-psycho-social model for mental illness is a front runner
How are the mind and body influencing each other?

M1 L3
Respond to the following study guide items from lecture
1. What 3 limitations should we keep in mind when considering the biological model of etiology of pathology?
1. The model does not account for mental illness for which there is no known biological etiology; not all of the illnesses give us the opportunity to look at the physiological/biological substrate
2. It does not account for the interaction of environment and biological predisposition; biology can’t account for all disorders
3. It creates a passive view of humans and denies personal ability and responsibility for change; people who are passionate about this model will say you have to come up with medical interventions; this is not an appropriate view of human beings or psychopathology

2. Locate, name and explain the basic function of the 4 major lobes of the brain.
Frontal lobe: right at the front/ forehead to midskull
Behavior inhibition
Planning and abstract thought
Pre-frontal areas are particularly Critical in orchestrating emotional response (decode emotions and how we should respond to it)
Left prefrontal associated with positive affect
Right prefrontal associated with negative affect (depressed, upset, frightened); this area is most active/involved
Two sides can balance each other out
Approach-withdrawal conflicts
Executive of the brain: makes decisions, understands, and interepts; most intelligent and thinking part of the brain
Parietal lobe: posterior to frontal
Body sensations
Spatial orientation
Simple associations
Automatic responses; knee-jerk responses associated with past events
Occipital lobe: back of the head
Vision projection area
Allows us to see; eyes collect light based information and send neural impulses to the back of the head where the occipital lobe is
First receiving station for visual information; doesn’t tell us what we are seeing is
Tells us that we are visually stimulated
Temporal lobe: side of brain; right at the ear
Language, hearing, memory and verbal processes
The better understanding
Right temporal lobe: Nonverbal memory (facial recognition), nonverbal aspects of communication, aspects of pitch and sound location and certain aspects of personality and facial recognition—sights, sounds
Left temporal lobe: language based; verbal
Two lobes can talk to each other thru corpus colloseum

3. Locate and name and explain the functions of the 6 sub-cortical areas covered in lecture.
Only responds to things in the immediate present; doesn’t have a language; doesn’t have memory; doesn’t have emotions, thoughts, feelings, etc.
Corpus Callosum:
Connects the two hemispheres; allows left hemisphere to communicate with right
Thalamus
Sensory interconnect center and plays a role in attention
Hub; collecting center for all sensory information that is coming in
Cerebellum:
Back of the brain
First areas to develop
Gross motor physical skills, coordination
Time estimation and attention
Reticular Formation:
In brain stem
Controls overall cortical tone (baseline electrical activity)
Attention, stimulation seeking behavior, and sleep disturbance
Hypothalamus:
Regulates our internal biological systems
Regulates eating, drinking, body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate
Part of the brain that rises or lowers the internal biological systems according to demand
Electrical stimulation (sympathetic); changing hormone levels
Pituitary:
Controls endocrine system and is greatly influenced by hypothalamus
Hormones

4. What is the limbic system and what is its function?
Recruits areas from all 3 brain areas
Composed of the limbic (cingulate) gyrus : last part of the cerebral cortex that lies ontop of the corpus callesum
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Amygdala: fundamental primal area that controls fear and anger; alarm system in our brain
Hippocampus (memory) : immediate memory; moment by moment exactly what is happening to us in the present
Influences basic emotions, pleasure, and sexual arousal
Accumbens nucleus: pleasure, happy, excitement, sexual arousal
FUNCTION:
Seat of emotional arousal
Controls physical aspects to emotion
Labeling, interpretation and regulation of intensity of emotion, however, is done in the cortex
The control of fear and anger is mediated by the prefrontal and frontal cortical areas
I’m emotional/I’m not emotional – on/off system

5 What is the SAM system and what Is its function?
Fight or Flight response
Sympathetic-Adrenal Medulla system
Electrically mediated through the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous sytem
Stimulates our body and prepares us for action
When we are alarmed we send an electrical signal through the ANS that stimulates the core (medulla) of the adrenal glands which produce Catecholamines

6. Define catecholamine and explain their function.
Hormonal neurotransmitters
Epinephrine and Norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline)
These create immediate body arousal needed to deal with an emergency. Short lived response

7. What areas are included in the HPA axis and what is the function of this system?
Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Cortical Axis
If we Need a more sustained response to a chronic stressor we use this system
Works more slowly; not near as immediate as SAM and it doesn’t use electricity
It uses our humeral system (blood supply) for transmission
Sustained for longer period of times even though it occurs more slowly
Emotional arousal --- stimulate pituitary gland – secretes adreno-cortico-stimulating hormone (ACH)--- circulates to the adrenal glands—stimulates the outer layer of the adrenal glands and adrenal cortex--- stimulated and produces stress hormones—glucocorticoids
Immediate effects: create physical arousal to deal with an emergency ; ANS uses cortisol to attempt to regulate and calm this arousal
If we are constantly stressed over a long period of time; cortisol keeps getting produced; this will build up in our blood system and it will attack the body creating both physical and mental disorders.

8. What are Glucocorticoids and cortisol in particular? What is the short term and long-term effect of cortisol?
Stress hormones = glucocorticoids
Will also stimulate emergency physical changes
Cortisol—actually intended to help regulate the catecholamines being produced in the adrenal medulla

9. Name and locate all 3 of the major structural parts of a neuron.
Cell body: middle part of the cell that contains the cell nucleus which regulates the cells functioning
Axon: the long cable extending from the cell body that is the sending end of the neuron; action potential moves along the axon to terminal buttons; information from neuron always moves in that direction
Terminal button: a structure at the end of the axon that, when stimulated, releases chemicals into the space between neurons
Dendrites: the twiggy part of the neuron that receives messages from the axons of other cells

10. What is an action potential?
The cascading flow of electrical energy within a neuron that moves from dendrite toward axon
Done through flow of ions that is charged atoms across the cell membrane of the entire neuron

11.. Define the synaptic cleft and explain the fundamental neuro-chemical process of neuronal transmission.
Axons do not touch; they come close but there is a space and that is the synaptic cleft—space between axons and dendrites
Information is transferred across the snypatic cleft when the axon terminal buttons open and release chemicals into the cleft. These need to flow across the space and find a receptor site on the dendrite of the receiving neuron that they can bind to
Chemicals are called neurotransmitters

12.Name, define and explain three antagonist processes that can decrease neurotransmitter effectiveness in the synaptic cleft.
Reuptake: some neurotransmitter is reabsorbed by the axon of the sending neuron. Some medications work by blocking reuptake of neurotransmitters
Blocking re-uptake – increased production of the neurotransmitter over time through 2 step mechanism (L3 SL33)
Degradation: enzymes in the synaptic cleft that neutralize the neurotransmitter and dissolve it before it gets to the dendrite. Some medications inhibit these enzymes
Diluted: neurotransmitter is too diluted to stimulate the next dendrite. Some medications work by augmenting the transmission by mimicking the neurotransmitter
14. Differentiate agonist and antagonist drugs and note their effects on synaptic activity and neural pathway activity.
Agonist drug: any substance that makes the synapse work at a higher rate; makes synapse work more
Antagonist drug: makes the synapse work at a lower rate ; slow down synapse
Excitatory neurons: make brain work faster
Inhibitory neurons: decrease brain activity

15. What is the general focus of cognitive-behavioral perspectives on psychopathology today?
We are interested with what is happening the person
Stimulus comes in—we see internal processor (past, thoughts, beliefs)—response based on how the person believes things are (what it means to us)
Albert Ellis’s ABC Theory
Activating Event – Belief—Consequences (emotional and behavior)
Intervention of our belief system
Activating events must be given meaning and interrupt our understanding
Role of therapist is to dispute existing beliefs that are maladaptive or irrational; by disputing these beliefs we get altered consequences
Just trying to change people’s behavior or altering and changing the events doesn’t work
Maladaptive responses result from problems in thinking. It is what a person believes about themselves and the world that is the issue
16. Explain the concept of self-schema
Schema is the internal mental representation of everything we know about the world including ourselves (self schema)
Our collection of schema IS our subjective reality
Our understanding of the world is REAL to us

17. Explain how an imbalance of assimilation and accommodation contributes to psychopathology.
We use our reality to interpret and make sense of the world.
We observe the world and this is the process of assimilation: using what we know to understand the world as we encounter it
If we encounter information that violates our schema..what we should do is alter our schema to account for the new information. This is the process of accommodation
Accommodation…being schema; altering it
Pathology occurs when we are unable to naturally accommodate new information.
We keep knowing the world in one way even when evidence tells us that this is not how things are. We become inflexible and think and believe ourselves and the world in an unyielding manner despite disconfirming evidence
Cognitive Theory : L3SL49

18. List and describe 6 cognitive distortions used to maintain irrational thought.
1. Arbitrary Inference: jumping to conclusions about self/world with no basis
a. Jumping to conclusion: example: person with depression gets a new job and they say no one there likes me and you ask the person why? And they respond with “you can just tell”
2. Selective Abstraction: emphasizing one detail, out of context, and drawing a conclusion
a. Take one negative experience and that person dwells on it and takes it out of context
b. Person has a job evaluation and they do very well; the person gets a 2 out of 5 on one aspect and now they say they are going to be fired even if they are given a raise after the evaluation and then they just quit the job because they thought they were going to be fired.
3. Overgeneralization: taking one true fact and using it as a basis of an extreme position
a. Person will look at something that is absolutely true and then they use this as a basis of an extreme conclusion
b. Person with new job; no one likes them supposedly; no one bothered to come by and ask me to go to lunch—this really did happen but they aren’t sure if everyone likes them
4. Magnification: emphasizing faults and ignoring virtues
a. Person with depression will have tendency to look at all of their failures and completely ignore anything on the positive side of the ledger
5. Personalization: taking events as a personal attack when such a connection is not apparent
a. People who take things very personally, thin-skined, hold grudges, they expect personal attack and they see it, even when it isn’t there
6. Polarized Thinking: all-or-none thinking on oneself or life events
a. 100% accuracy
b. Someone in relationship who depends on honesty and one white lie and then that person is not trustworthy

19. What do cognitive therapists mean by the term non-conscious thinking?
It is not done unconsciously, it isn’t conscious either—the person doesn’t know that they are maintaining this negative schema
But at therapy we can take what is non-conscious and bring it to a conscious level and we can then challenge these ways of thinking

20. What is attribution theory and how does it create cognitive distortions that can contribute to psychopathology.
Attribution: process of deciding the cause of events; cognitive distortion
Why did this happen?
When negative things happen we often want to know what caused the event; we want to attribute cause
Natural process
Negative attribution is often related to depression; it creates a negative me scheme